The Blind Box has brought fire to the concept of “tide play” and kicked off the growth of China’s adult toy market.
In the past 618 e-commerce mid-year promotion, Elska company operating a number of IP tide play hot sales, including Tencent video broadcast broken 30 billion “Doula Continent” animation series blind box – Shrek seven monsters, Taobao crowdfunding amount 1000% reached. tokidoki flagship store transformed into a flagship store of figure toys, tokidoki large 600 model was snapped up.
Tide play market participants and new players continue, Li Jiaqi’s Naiwa family also on the Tmall 618 tide play hot list.” Play toys” is no longer the patent of children, adult toys show the head.
The market boom is not only due to the upgrade of cultural and entertainment consumption and the rise of Generation Z, but also because China has officially entered a child-less society and the population market base is changing.
The Japanese market, which has experienced child rearing earlier, has experienced a market variation that brought nearly 10 years of “pain” until 2014, when the Japanese toy market climbed again and stabilized at the level of 800 billion yen.
Traditional toy enterprises transformation, all-age product segmentation, adult toy consumption blossoms …… we may be able to peek from its development trajectory to find the direction of China’s adult toy market.
Elska is an early batch of domestic companies operating in the tide play business, founded in 2016, the introduction and operation of tokidoki, doula continent, mini world and other tide play IP, providing commodity development, brand promotion and channel sales services, 2020 revenue of nearly 200 million. Samuel Wong, founder and CEO of Elska, was invited to share his views and predictions on the Chinese toy market.
The era of “overloaded kids”, toys are difficult to find a place
Japan’s Ministry of Health, Labour and Welfare published population dynamics statistics show that in 2020, Japan’s birth population of only 840832 people, a record low since the statistics.
Demand-side level, aging and fewer children led to Japan’s domestic consumption is increasingly depressed, a direct phenomenon is the closure of toy stores. 2006 ~ 2013, Japan’s toy market fell into the trough, until 2014, only after the rebound climb, maintaining the level of 800 billion.
The current Chinese toy market is also facing the issue of fewer children.
In 2021, the seventh national census data, the population of 0-14 years old accounted for 17.95% of the total population, (the normal indicator is 20%, Japan’s indicator is 13.8%), the newborn population in 2020 is 12 million, a third less than in 2016, indicating that China has entered the era of less children.
Not only the shrinkage of the scale of infant users, the current state of domestic children’s lives, making the market environment more complex.
Samuel said, on the one hand, the rapid changes in electronic intelligent products, a cell phone, pad can be tethered to the child all day; at the same time, Tencent agent Switch, Sony Playstation series, Xbox and other game machine market popularity, but also to diversify entertainment options. On the other hand, the rhythm of life of “chicken children”, online courses are further encroaching on the time of small children. Traditional toys want to squeeze into the limited entertainment time of children become more and more difficult.
Fewer children, for a short time may become a factor in the development of the toy market constraints, but can not be ignored is that the family’s economic ability to improve, children’s toy consumption will grow.
Adult toys become a new growth point, and products tend to be diversified and subdivided
“Future growth will come from the Adult Toys adult toy market,” Samuel predicted. Adult Toys, adult-oriented toy entertainment consumption is not new in overseas markets. Teenagers in their teens, and silver-haired groups in their 50s and 60s, will further expand the age boundary for consuming toys in the future.
In order to cope with the declining birthrate, Japanese toy manufacturers have begun to make strategic adjustments, and the supply side has undergone a series of changes:
First, the transformation of traditional children’s toy manufacturers has sought breakthroughs by expanding the age range of toy audiences, and the adult consumer market has become a growth point.
Second, the focus of toy dealers is shifting from the male group to the female market in the 20s to 30s, and the categories are not limited to figurines and models.
In 2019, the adult toy business brought about 101.5 billion yen in sales (approximately 40%) to Bandai Japan. In addition, People, an old Japanese baby toy brand, has launched DIY toys for young girls; Domei Toys has launched the flagship version of Domeka, a collectible alloy car model toy for adults.
The domestic market has also begun to have such characteristics. Traditional toy brands and chain retail companies have begun to deploy the adult toy consumer market. For example, this year, Aofei invested 45 million yuan in Kaitian Studio, and Miniso invested tens of millions in Yujialiangpin, a statue manufacturer. Yuan, many adults obtained financing from toy companies.
Samuel believes that the future toy consumer market must be diversified. The adult toy market is not just a blind box. Toy products of each age group contain rich opportunities.
The essence of Chaowan is consumer goods, returning to users and insisting on product logic
At the moment the market is chasing profits, the popularity of blind boxes has made those who enter the game agitated, and critical voices have been repeated. To a certain extent, the concepts of blind boxes and trendy play are almost demonized.
Samuel believes that popular blind boxes are essentially consumer goods. Whether it’s blind boxes, statues, models, or other pan-fashion play products, they should all return to commodity logic. Blind box is a typical form of consumer goods, the difference is that it has elements of surprise.
Samuel believes that the enthusiasm of the trendy play comes from the fan base. The “vitality” of Chaowan lies in the ability to continuously gain users’ love, in other words, whether it can grasp the changes in consumer psychology.
tokidoki was founded in 2003 and was introduced to China in 2016. At that time, the most popular horse cartoon image on the market was My Little Pony, but as a child-oriented cartoon image, My Little Pony was more than cute and lacking in fashion. For the mainstream young urban female group, “unicorns” are just a kind of image sustenance of dreams and love, and they are cute and cool. Therefore, the tokidoki unicorno series quickly became popular in the years.
Different from the “replacement” product path, each generation of the tokidoki Unicorno series has a different idea and a different theme image. The differentiation of this product strategy also brings appeal.
In the past five years, tokidoki has developed six generations of the Unicorno series, with a cumulative sales of more than 2 million units, which still maintains a strong market demand.
According to reports, tokidoki has gradually expanded from its early ten to twenty-year-old audiences. The audience has covered first-tier and new-tier cities, and more than 80% of them are women.
Samuel believes that the operation of Chaowan must also follow the product logic and manage it from the perspective of product life cycle. The product positioning of a Chaowan determines its absolute attractiveness. For example, in the image of animals, mentioning a bear will think of be@rbrick, and mentioning a unicorn will think of My Little Pony. This original “positioning” means that the IP card is in an absolute position.
Dig interested players from interest e-commerce, and live broadcast brings 50% of new fans
In addition to the sales scale, Samuel pays more attention to user research, user portraits, regional differences in channels and traffic pools, digging into brand-related words of IP extension, and grasping the timing of product launch operations.
Although e-commerce platforms only contribute 20% of revenue and most rely on powerful distribution channels, online channels are still very important as windows to reach users.
Elska will spend a very long time doing user research and connect users through social media such as e-commerce, live broadcast, fan communities, Weibo and WeChat. Understand the needs of customers to the extreme, and then create an explosive product to the extreme.
“Online can better serve users and store big fans”, Samuel believes that since the opening of e-commerce stores in 2017, more than one million platform fans have been deposited.
Scale first and then national brand, to achieve the ultimate in each sub-category
Samuel believes that the community atmosphere is set to highlight and manipulate the secondary market, and it is indeed possible to quickly make a hot product, but it is difficult to make a brand. The disappearance of the craze is not a good thing for the long-term development of the market.
At present, China’s trendy play market, or the adult toy market, is still in a state of chaos. The obvious states are:
First, besides blind boxes, what other categories are in the toy market, it is difficult for the mass players to fully understand the market, not to mention the companies and brands behind these products.
Second, what exactly is a trendy toy? The boundary of the trendy play is becoming more and more blurred. Many toys are not trendy in the traditional sense. Too many products on the market are conceptualized, and they are more of a craze.
Third, the concentration of the domestic market is very low. Bubble Mart has only been recognized in recent years, and the face of the echelon brand is vague.
Samuel believes that when the product scale reaches a certain level, the brand is likely to be noticed. Market size means consumer awareness, volume, and concentration, which requires a process. Chinese brands grow together with the development of the market, and the Chinese market has the opportunity to nurture great companies.
This year, Elska is also experimenting with comprehensive IP development, including celebrity sales, celebrity selfies, social networking, development of celebrity exclusives, and cross-border authorization of cultural and creative categories.
In July, Shanghai will hold a large-scale theme carnival with tokidoki as the theme, covering more than 30,000 square meters, which integrates image display and amusement interaction. The limited blind box series will also be launched simultaneously.
Samuel believes that every individual and every consumer has different collection hobbies. Not only blind boxes, big dolls, BJDs, but also small classified products, collectible coins, metal jewelry, etc., each sub-category contains huge market opportunities. Elska is also exploring some sub-categories, digging deep and reaching the ultimate.
